12:13 AM,
Feb. 25, 2013

Should Predators center Craig Smith (15) be paired with Sergei Kostitsyn in an effort to improve the team's offense?

Written by

Josh Cooper
| The Tennessean

The Predators (8-6-5) have lost four of their past five games and are muddled in neutral. A look at some of their issues and what to expect moving forward:

Last season, the Predators' top-ranked power play bailed them out in big moments. This season, it has not.

The Predators are at 14.3 percent with the man-advantage (22nd in the NHL entering Sunday). Down 1-0 against Vancouver on Friday, the Predators couldn't score off an Alex Burrows penalty with 2:13 left in the third period. Then on Saturday, the Predators couldn't cut into Detroit's 2-0 lead off Jonathan Ericsson's hold with 8:49 left in ...